Education
Ph.D. Princeton University, 1998.
Selected Bibliography
The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq . Transformation of the Classical Heritage 40. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2006.
“From Nisibis to Xi’an: The Church of the East in Late Antiquity,” forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, ed. Scott Johnson ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, expected, 2010).
“Hagiography as History in Late Antique Iraq: The History of St. George of Izla (†614) by Babai the Great.” In “Writing true stories”: Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and Medieval Near East, ed. Arietta Papaconstantinou in collaboration with Muriel Debié and Hugh Kennedy. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishing, 2010, 31-41.
“ Iran and its Neighbors in Late Antiquity: The Art of the Sasanian Empire, 224-642 C.E.” American Journal of Archaeology 11, no. 4 (2007): 795-801.
Editor, with Scott Noegel and Brannon Wheeler, Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World. Magic in History Series. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003. Co-author of introduction (pp. 1-17).
“The Legacy of Mesopotamia in Late Antique Iraq: The Christian Martyr Shrine at Melqi (Neo-Assyrian Milqia.” ARAM: The Journal of Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 18-19 (2006-2007): 471-96.
“Against the Eternity of the Stars: Disputation and Christian Philosophy in Late Antique Iraq.” In La Persia e Bizanzio, ed. G. Gnoli et A. Panaino. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 2004, 518-35.
Work in Progress
Jewel of the Palace and the Soul: Pearls in the Arts, Imagination, and Economy of Late Antiquity .
A monograph integrating literary, art historical, and archaeological evidence to examine the role of pearls as objects of adornment and spirituality in the Roman Empire, early Christianity, Byzantium, the Sasanian Empire, and early Islam.
Witness to the Mongols: The Empire of Genghis Khan and his Successors through Contemporary Eyes .
Witness to the Mongols traces the rise and evolution of the Mongol Empire through a series of carefully introduced and annotated primary sources. Prepared in collaboration with Stefan Kamola and Florian Schwarz.
Archaeological Field Work
Field Director, The Tahirler Project (1997-98, 2000- )
This is a multi-year project investigating the history and archaeology
of western Galatia in northwestern Turkey. Field research for the project
has identified a series of rural, late Roman and Byzantine sites associated
with the Roman highway that traversed Galatia en route from Constantinople
to Ankara (Ancyra). The project integrates archaeological reconnaissance
with the stude of literary sources associated with the local Christian
holy man and bishop, St. Theodore of Sykeon (ca. 550-613 CE).
Trench supervisor, Aqaba, Jordan, May-June, 1994, North Carolina State
Roman Aqaba Project. Excavated mud-brick domestic complex of early Byzantine
period.
Excavator, Bliesbrück, Lorraine, France, July, 1993. Excavation
of a Gallo-Roman town under sponsorship of the French Ministry of Culture.
Archaeology intern, Malheur National Wildlife Resere, Princeton, Oregon,
USA, June-August, 1991, Survey and excavation of Northern Paiute village
site.
Archaeology Field School, University of Texas at Austin Metaponto Project,
Crotone, Italy, June-August, 1990. Excavation of Neolithic agricultural
site.
Excavator, Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Würtemberg, Tübingen, Germany,
July, 1989. Excavation of pit houses from an early medieval village.
Independent travel and study of archaeological sites, especially Roman
and Byzantine, in Europe (1989-93), North Africa (1992), Jordan and Syria
(1994), Turkey (1994, 1996-2002), and the former Yugoslavia (2003-2004).
Recent Graduate Seminars
Introduction to the Roman Near East (2005, 2007, autumn 2010)
Bull of Heaven and Earth: Animals and Religion in the Ancient World (winter, 2010)
Early Christian Monasticism in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, ca. 300-700 C.E. (autumn, 2008)
The Mongols: Warfare, Trade, and Culture in Eurasia, ca. 1180-1405 C.E. (winter, 2008)
Books, Readers, and Literacy in the World of Late Antiquity (autumn, 2006)
The World of Late Antiquity: An Introduction to the Historiography (2001, 2003)
Warfare, Diplomacy, and Empire in the Age of Justinian (autumn, 2002)
The Holy Land in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (winter, 2002)
Heresy, Orthodoxy, and Religious Coercion in Early Christianity (spring, 2000)
Asceticism and Monastic Biography in Late Antiquity (autumn, 1998)
